November 5, 2008

The Breakup, Ctd., Ctd.

Randy Scheunemann, a senior foreign policy adviser to John McCain,
was fired from the Arizona senator's campaign last week for what one
aide called "trashing" the campaign staff, three senior McCain advisers
tell CNN.

One of the aides tells CNN that campaign manager Rick Davis fired
Scheunemann after determining that he had been in direct contact with
journalists spreading "disinformation" about campaign aides, including
Nicolle Wallace and other officials.

"He was positioning himself with Palin at the expense of John McCain's campaign message," said one of the aides.

Senior campaign officials blame Schuenemann specifically for stories
about the way Wallace and chief campaign strategist Steve Schmidt
mishandled Palin's rollout — stories that the campaign says threw them
off message in the critical final weeks of the campaign.